


Shadows

by Sapphy, SapphyWatchesYouSleep (Sapphy)



Series: The Act for the Defence of the Human Genome [2]
Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Alternate Universe - Supernatural, Coming Out, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-17
Updated: 2013-04-17
Packaged: 2017-12-08 18:41:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/764728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphy/pseuds/Sapphy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphy/pseuds/SapphyWatchesYouSleep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All his life, the DHG has hung over Gerard like a shadow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadows

Gerard can remember the day that the Act for the Defence of the Human Genome was passed. He’d been six. He’d come in from school, found his mom sitting at the kitchen table, clutching Mikey to her like someone was going to try and take him away.

She’d ushered him in, told him to sit down, and talked very seriously about how important it was that he didn’t tell anyone about the things that he and Mikey could do. It was the first time he remembers being aware of how scary the world really is.

When he was little, his mom had helped him with his power, always there with a kind word and a Band-Aid when he burned someone, always telling him it was okay, that it didn’t matter, when he set something alight. And then with Mikey, even though she’d been so sick during the pregnancy, even though Mikey’d nearly drained her completely more than once when he was a toddler, she’d always been understanding, supportive. The DHG changed all that.

To begin with, it was just caution. He and Mikey were only little, it was hard to make them understand why they couldn’t tell people about their powers, so of course she was careful, she was strict. But the older they got, the stricter she got, until it seemed like she was as scared of them as the Human Defence League were.

When they were growing up, Elena was everything to them. She was the one they’d inherited their powers from, and she was the one they could talk about them too. She was the one who taught them little tricks for concealing what they really were, taught them how to blend in. But it was also her who taught them to be proud of what they were, what they could do. Taught them that being careful didn’t mean hiding all the time.

High school is hell for everyone, that’s just how it goes. But it was worse for them. Having to be so careful all the time meant, even more than being fat or awkward or geeky, that they had no one but each other.

Once they got older, when Gerard was at college and Mikey was finishing high school, they discovered that there were places out there where no one cared.

Comic book geeks had responded to the introduction of the DHG by forming the Brotherhood of Mutants. Gerard spent his time at college making friends with psychics and Fae and a guy called Gerald who was half demon. Mostly they drank and talked about how shit the law was, but they also came up with comics that wouldn’t get published even if the censors would pass them and protested outside government buildings dressed as superheroes. Gerard kind of gave up eating in favour of drinking and smoking, and alright he was never going to be buff, but he didn’t look too bad in his Deadpool costume. Cops tried to arrest him twice, and both times he got out of it by setting fire to something. He felt kind of bad about that, and then he remembered the stories about what happened to Supernaturals who were taken in, and felt better.

When he wasn’t standing outside the Mayor’s office dressed as an obscure Marvel hero, or working out new ways to draw without setting fire to the paper (it was possible that writing, rather than drawing, comics would be the way to go) Mikey introduced him to what he liked to think of as the sub sub scene, a section of the underground music scene reserved for those who were a little more than human.

He stood at the back of dank dirty rooms (him and moshing was a really bad combination) and watched Mikey glow as he fed of a club full of psyched up kids. The bands weren’t necessarily any good, but they wrote songs about hiding, and being different, and their stage lighting and pyrotechnics were provided by Supernatural band members rather than human techs.

Gerard had known Otter for years, one of the humans who skirted the edges of the sub-sub scene, and they’d talked more than once about how great it would be to form a band. Gerard had always dismissed it as impossible, he’d tried learning to play guitar and nearly burned the house down, and yeah he wasn’t a bad singer, but he wasn’t great either. But when he saw the footage of the attacks on the Twin Towers, when he read the death count, he realised that none of that mattered. What mattered was that this was something he wanted, and he hadn’t even been prepared to try it. They formed a band the next day.

Being in a band with a human meant playing it human, meant the references in the songs had to be subtle, meant no stage pyrotechnics, meant forcing Mikey to learn the bass so he could join and stop Gerard setting fire to anything important. It was so worth it.

Gerard was pretty sure he’d seen Ray at some Supernatural gigs, but Otter and Mikey had known him from the human side of the scene, so it’s possible that Gerard was mistaken. Unlikely, with hair like that, but you never know. Gerard decided it honestly doesn’t matter what species he is, because Ray is kind and funny and tolerates Gerard’s weirdness, and most importantly, plays guitar like a Demon. (Metaphorically speaking. Gee’s met one or two demons but he’s never heard any of them play any kind of instrument.)

Thing move kind of scary fast. One minute they’re still arguing about names, next thing he knows, they’ve recruited Frank fucking Iero (Gerard waits till he’s alone to do his happy dance. Well, alone except Mikey, but Mikey’s not surprised by anything Gerard does any more) and they’re recording an album. And actual album, in an actual studio. Gerard spends the whole time terrified he’s going to melt some incredibly expensive bit of recording equipment.

Pretending to be human is pretty much the most stressful thing Gerard’s ever had to do. He sticks to Mikey like a limpet and deals with his anxiety with increasingly colourful cocktails of drugs. Pretending to be human on tour is even worse. At home he makes sure he knows what’s flammable, where everything is, makes sure there’s minimal chance for accidents. On a proper tour, in a bus, crossing whole fucking countries, he spends the whole time folded in on himself, trying not to touch anything. He washes anti-depressants down with vodka and chases them with coke. By the time they reach Japan, he can’t remember the last time he was sober.

Japan gives non-humans equal status, lets them intermarry and have jobs and live the normal fucking life Gerard knows he’ll never get to have back home. He disappears into Tokyo’s nightlife, takes anything anyone offers him, and it’s sheer bloody luck Mikey finds him before the press do, because he’d kind of forgotten about the internet, forgotten that if gets photographed using his powers there’ll be police waiting for him when he touches back down in the States.

In the end it’s not cops waiting for him, it’s sobriety and a new drummer and a really long lecture from Mikey about how he needs to trust himself and stop being such a fucking idiot. Actually, he thinks that last part might have happened while they were in Japan as well. He gets the speech a lot those first few weeks of sobriety.

Gerard’s kind of sad to see Otter go, because they guy had been there since the beginning, but on the other hand, he was kind of an asshole, and Bob is awesome. They know him through Brian, and he’s tech’d for them a few times, but most excitingly, he’d been a part of the sub sub scene, still was, which meant that Gerard could relax, just a little bit. He didn’t ask what Bob’s power was, you didn’t, for some reason, you waited to be told, but just the knowledge that he and Mikey weren’t outnumbered by humans was a good feeling.

Warped is kind of a high point, not just because they’re fucking headlining, which is amazing, but because the other band up there at the top of the posters are from the sub sub scene. And yeah, maybe no one human knows it, but it’s still fucking amazing, knowing that despite all the oppression the government try to bring down on them, Supernaturals are making it. They’re out there, living their dreams, not letting their species slow them down.

Gerard almost can’t believe it when the DHG is repealed. It’s just been there, his whole life, governing everything he does. Him and Mikey talk about coming out, about what the most dramatic way to do it would be, but in the end they just stop being quite so careful, and privately cheer every time someone in the public eye comes out. And Gerard’s always made speeches, always told the crowds at their shows that they should be themselves, but now he can say what he really means without fear of being arrested, so that’s pretty awesome.

The day his band find out about him, the day he finds out about them, is one of the best of his life. When he stands on stage that night and watches the fans, hears the howls from the weres, sees the bursts of light from the fae and the batteries, he feels like he’s finally shrugged off a great weight and he knows it’s the shadow of the DHG. There’s still plenty of prejudice out there, there’ll be countries that won’t let them in to play, but it doesn’t matter. They’re free, they’ve got a voice. Things can only get better.


End file.
